The Middle East is a geopolitical region encompassing the Arabian Peninsula, the Levant, Turkey, Egypt, Iran, and Iraq.
The United Arab Emirates is a high-income developing market economy. The UAE's economy is the 4th largest in the Middle East, with a gross domestic product (GDP) of US$415 billion in 2021-2023.
In international relations, regional power, since the late 20th century, has been used for a sovereign state that exercises significant power within its geographical region. States that wield unrivaled power and influence within a region of the world possess regional hegemony.
The Middle East and North Africa (MENA), also referred to as West Asia and North Africa (WANA) or South West Asia and North Africa (SWANA), is a geographic region which comprises the Middle East and North Africa together. However, it is widely considered to be a more defined and apolitical alternative to the concept of the Greater Middle East, which comprises the bulk of the Muslim world. The region has no standardized definition and groupings may vary, but the term typically includes countries like Algeria, Bahrain, Egypt, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Tunisia, the UAE, and Yemen.
India–Saudi Arabia relations, also referred to as Indian-Saudi relations or Indo-Saudi relations, are the bilateral relations between the Republic of India and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Relations between the two nations are generally strong and close, especially in commercial interests. Indo-Saudi bilateral trade reached US$27.48 billion in the financial year 2017–18, up from US$25.1 billion in the preceding year. Saudi Arabia's exports to India stood at US$22.06 billion whereas India's exports were US$5.41 billion.
Israel–United Arab Emirates relations traces its origins to the early days of the Oslo Accords, where Israeli and Emirati diplomats had contact with each other in the 1990s in Washington, D.C. The first diplomatic facility between the two countries opened in 2015, when Israel opened an official diplomatic mission in Abu Dhabi to the International Renewable Energy Agency.
India–United Arab Emirates relations are the bilateral relations that exist between the Republic of India and the United Arab Emirates. Since 3000 B.C., India and the UAE, including its precursor emirates, had close relations with ancient trade networks. Sumerians traded with Meluhha, Magan, and Dilmun (Bahrain), connecting through the UAE. Maritime routes facilitated Arab trade with India for silk, spices, gold, and porcelain. Sumerians traded with Meluhha, Magan, and Dilmun (Bahrain), connecting through the UAE. Maritime routes facilitated Arab trade with India for silk, spices, gold, and porcelain. Post-1971, India-UAE relations strengthened politically, economically, and culturally.
The State of Israel and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia have never had formal diplomatic relations. In 1947, Saudi Arabia voted against the United Nations Partition Plan for Palestine, and currently does not recognize Israeli sovereignty. However, as of 2023, bilateral negotiations towards Israeli–Saudi normalization are ongoing, with the United States serving as the two sides' mediator.
The two-state solution is a proposed approach to resolving the Israeli–Palestinian conflict, by creating two states on the territory of the former Mandatory Palestine. It is often contrasted with the one-state solution, which is the establishment a single state in former Mandatory Palestine with equal rights for all its inhabitants. The two-state solution is supported by many countries, and the Palestinian Authority. Israel currently does not support the idea, though it has in the past.
The Middle East region plays a vital role in India's economy as it supplies nearly two-thirds of India's total oil import, bilateral trade is also flourishing in recent years particularly with UAE and other Arab states of the Persian Gulf. Over the years, millions of Indians mostly working class have migrated to the Persian Gulf region looking for jobs and they account for a sizeable share in the total remittances received from abroad. Indian External Affairs Ministry refers the region as West Asia and not as Middle East which is a more popular attribution, particularly in the Western countries.
Iran and Saudi Arabia are engaged in a proxy conflict over influence in the Middle East and other regions of the Muslim world. The two countries have provided varying degrees of support to opposing sides in nearby conflicts, including the civil wars in Syria and Yemen; and disputes in Bahrain, Lebanon, Qatar, and Iraq. The struggle also extends to disputes or broader competition in other countries globally including in West, North and East Africa, South, Central, Southeast Asia, the Balkans, and the Caucasus.
The Arab–Israeli alliance is an unofficial security coalition comprising Israel and various Arab countries. Originally formed in the interest of the Gulf Cooperation Council, it is primarily focused on deterring the political and military ambitions of Iran, which has a proxy conflict both with Saudi Arabia and with Israel. It has been actively promoted by the United States since the February 2019 Warsaw conference. It is sometimes referred to as the Israeli–Sunni alliance, due to the Arab countries in it being predominately Sunni states, while Iran and much of its Axis of Resistance are predominately Shia.
The Abraham Accords are bilateral agreements on Arab–Israeli normalization signed between Israel and the United Arab Emirates and between Israel and Bahrain on September 15, 2020. Mediated by the United States, the announcement of August 13, 2020, concerned Israel and the Emirates before the subsequent announcement of an agreement between Israel and Bahrain on September 11, 2020. On September 15, 2020, the signing of the agreements was hosted by US president Trump on the Truman Balcony of the White House amid elaborate staging intended to evoke the signings of historic formal peace treaties in prior administrations.
The 2025 FIBA Asia Cup qualification is a basketball competition that is being played from June 2022 to February 2025, to determine the fifteen FIBA Asia-Oceania nations who will join the automatically qualified host Saudi Arabia at the 2025 FIBA Asia Cup.
The Indo-Abrahamic Alliance sometimes known as The Indo-Abrahamic Block or The Middle East QUAD or The Western QUAD or West Asian QUAD or I2-U2 is a geostrategic term coined by the foreign policy thinker and grand strategist Mohammed Soliman in use for a long essay for the Middle East Institute. The Indo-Abrahamic term refers to the growing convergence of geopolitical interests among India, Israel, and the United Arab Emirates, which will create a regional bloc that would include Egypt and Saudi Arabia and eventually fill in the gap left by a future US withdrawal from the Middle East and represents a counterbalance to Turkey and Iran. The Biden Administration later adopted Soliman's Indo-Abrahamic concept by launching the I2U2 Group in October 2021, which was followed by a leaders-level summit in July 2022.
The Partnership for Global Infrastructure and Investment (PGII or PGI) is a collaborative effort by Group of Seven (G7) to fund infrastructure projects in developing nations based on the trust principles of the Blue Dot Network. It is intended to be the bloc's counter to China's Belt and Road Initiative and a key component of the "Biden Doctrine".
The I2U2 Group is a grouping of India, Israel, the United Arab Emirates, and the United States. The group's first joint statement, released on July 14, 2022, states that the countries aim to cooperate on "joint investments and new initiatives in water, energy, transportation, space, health, and food security."
The 2023 G20 New Delhi summit was the eighteenth meeting of the G20, a Head of State and Government meeting held at Bharat Mandapam, Delhi on 9–10 September 2023. It was the first G20 summit held in India.
The UAE–Israel land corridor is a primarily land-based trade route which runs from ports in Bahrain and United Arab Emirates across Saudi Arabia and Jordan, into Israel, and Egypt, leading from the Persian Gulf straight to Israel's seaports. The corridor was officially established on 13 December 2023.
The Indo-Mediterranean is the region comprising the Mediterranean world, the Indian Ocean world, and their connecting regions in the vicinity of the Suez Canal.
